Greeting
Well, good morning, everybody. My name’s Conrad. And you have the special privilege of if you’re here with us live in person this morning. You don’t get a screen. Yeah, it’s a good time. So now instead of me running around frantically and sweating, I’m going to leave it to Mike and Graham to run around and sweat frantically. Feel free if the screen comes on to clap or cheer or breathe a heavy sigh of relief for me.
Anyway, today I have a nice light topic for us. We’re talking about the unforgivable sin, so it should be an easy, breezy Sunday morning today. Yeah.
Personal Story: 25 Years Ago
So it was about 25 years ago this summer. Well, I mean, it was exactly 25 years ago this summer, that I accepted Jesus and became a Christian. Yeah. In Pastor Mike’s youth ministry no less. And part of my journey was actually getting invited out to kids’ club. Now, I was 13 at the time, much too old for kids’ club. So I quickly became one of the volunteers, one of the junior leaders.
And the fellow who was sort of the figurehead, the front man for kids club at that time, was a man named Warren Forrest. And Warren had a great way of running the skits and the Bible stories. Basically, it was all in his head. And he would say, Conrad, all you need to do for this skit is disagree with everything I say. And that was all the practice we got.
So it really enabled, or it honed my ability to sort of think on the fly and ad lib and improvise. And a few of those stories and skits stand out still today. Um, as sort of noteworthy in my mind. And one of my favorites, I don’t know what he called it, but it was this delivery man skit.
The Delivery Man Skit
And so the story goes like this. All of his skits were written for 3 people. He assumed he’d have no staff. It was a very wise move. So the first guy gives Warren, who’s the main character in this, he’s probably named Ralph. He loved the name Ralph. And so he gives Ralph this package and says, Ralph, I need you delivered this package to Joe Brown. Only Joe Brown, no one else, it’s very important that you give this to Joe.
And so Ralph says, absolutely. And so Ralph wanders off to, and then goes to the home of Joe Brown and sees a man in the front yard, and he says, Ralph says to the man, are you Joe Brown? And the man says, yes, I am. And then Ralph says, oh, good. Here, I have this package for you.
And as the man’s about to take it, Ralph says, wait a second. How do I know you’re Joe Brown? And Joe says, well, I’m standing in front of Joe Brown’s house. Isn’t that the address on the package? Ralph looks at it and says, yeah, wait a second. How do I know you’re not just standing in front of Joe Brown’s house?
And so Joe says, okay, fair enough. Here is my license. And so Ralph says, okay, it looks good. Wait a second here. What if you’re a different Joe Brown? Joe says, okay, fair enough. We’ll cross reference the address. The address on mine is the same as the address on that one. Ralph looks at it. Yeah, okay.
All right, that seems, wait a second. How do we know this isn’t a fake ID? I’ve heard about those things. I know people make fake identifications. What if you’re trying to steal this guy’s package? Joe says, okay, here is my passport that I use to travel to different countries and prove who I am. Ralph looks at it and says, okay, yeah, that’s, wait a second. If that’s fake, this could be fake too. I have no way of knowing if you’re Joe Brown at all. I’m not giving you this package.
And he takes it back to the depot, and Joe never does get his package. I know it’s a sad story. But it illustrates this persistent, consistent refusal to acknowledge the truth, right? He’s faced with all of this evidence, and still he says, I don’t know if you’re Joe Brown. It’s not good enough for me.
Scripture Reading: Mark 3:20–30 (NET)
So with that story sort of in our brains, let’s read our passage for this morning, which you won’t be able to read along with, but I’ll read it, and you can trust me that I’m doing a good job. So this is from Mark chapter three, we’re picking up in verse 20.
Now Jesus went home, and a crowd gathered so that they were not able to eat. When his family heard this, they went out to restrain him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” The experts in the law who came down from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebul, and by the ruler of demons he casts out demons.” So he called them and spoke to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom will not be able to stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan rises against himself and is divided, he is not able to stand and his end has come. But no one is able to enter a strong man’s house and steal his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can thoroughly plunder his house. I tell you the truth, people will be forgiven for all sins, even all the blasphemies they utter. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. He is guilty of an eternal sin because they said he has an unclean spirit.”
It’s going to be a good one this morning.
Opening Prayer
Father God, thank you for your word. Thank you for the dire warnings that you give us and the strong ways in which you illustrate them, God. You leave nothing to the imagination. You really lay it all out for us. And I pray that you would help us this morning as we read through this and comb through it to parse these words, to really understand what they mean and what you’re trying to warn us of. I pray this morning, God, that when we are done this examination of your word, we would feel edified, encouraged, hopeful, and with a new sense of purpose. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.
Introduction to the Passage and Markan Sandwich
So I’m secretly hoping, because I have a few videos this morning, that I will not have to describe them to you in real time, but we’ll see how that goes. So we’ve I’ve broken down our passage this morning into four different sections. First, the prologue. The 2nd is the accusation. The third is the parables, and the fourth is the explanation. So we’re just going to go through one at a time. Take a look at them section by section, because word by word would honestly take too long.
So we’re going to pick up again in verse 20 and 21. Now, Jesus went home, and a crowd gathered so that they were not able to eat. When his family heard this, they went out to restrain him, for they said he is out of his mind. When his family heard this, they went out to restrain him, for they said he is out of his mind.
Now, the more astute among you might notice that I’ve reincluded verses 20 and 21, which we just read, at Pastor Graham also read them last week, because they are part of what’s known as a Markan sandwich. It’s not very delicious, but it is very edificational. Is that a word? I’ve invented it. It’s not, I’ve coined it. You owe me money if you use it.
So the Markan sandwich basically works like this. Mark starts with an opening thought. And then he’ll shift into a totally different story that is related in theme to that opening thought. And then he will later close the thought. So that’s how the Markan sandwich works.
And this particular Markan sandwich indicates that proximity to Jesus does not necessarily equal good standing with him. Right? Proximity to Jesus does not equal good standing with him.
And, you know, speaking of kids’ club, another kids’ club skit that Pastor Graham and Pastor Carl used to do all the time, was, I don’t remember what they called it, but, you know, the guy would come in and he’d think, like, I’m a Christian because I go to church, and that guy would come in and say, well, I am an airplane because I went to an airport. And I forget what the other examples were, but it’s things like this. I’m a boat because I went to the docks. I’m an octopus because I went to the aquarium.
The idea is that because we have gone to this place, we are now part of this group, and we have all the rights and privileges of that group. But that’s not quite how it works. Proximity to Jesus does not mean good standing. Let’s just pop that in our pockets. We’ll come back to that later.
And as for the Markan sandwich, oh, man, I’m sad that you guys are going to miss this video. Watch the stream later. To get the video, you’ll know why it’s funny when you hear the audio.
But so the question becomes next week, Mike is doing the bottom bread of the Markan sandwich. So will he jump back in and be yet the 3rd person to read verses 20 and 21 in 3 weeks? Friends, Romans, countrymen, find out next week. Same bat time, same bat channel. It’s gonna be good.
The Accusation
So picking it up in verse 22. The experts in the law who came down from Jerusalem said he is possessed by Beelzebul, and by the ruler of demons, he casts out demons. So he, that’s Jesus, called them and spoke to them in parables, how can Satan cast out Satan?
That really is a good question. But first, we have to dig into what this all means, right? Beelzebul. I don’t know how many people have heard of Beelzebul. Maybe you’ve heard of Beelzebub? That was another purported god in those days in that region of the world. And Beelzebub basically meant the Lord of the Temple, the Lord of the dwelling place. And from what we’ve gathered in the gospels, it seems that the Jewish sort of religious people took to calling him Beelzebul as sort of a slur, which meant like the lord of the flies, or the lord of the dung heap. Really, what they were getting at was the Lord of evil.
And so what they’re saying is that Beelzebul is essentially Satan. Right? So they’re lumping in these Beelzebub worshipers with worshiping Satan. I don’t have a particular stance on that, but if they’re not worshiping Jesus, the outcome is just as grim as if they are worshiping Satan.
But don’t miss what’s happening here. Because the scribes are not denying what Jesus is doing. Right? They’re not saying, Jesus, you aren’t healing people. Jesus, you aren’t casting out demons. They’re not saying it’s fake. They’re saying it is real. What you’re doing is real, but you’re a demon doing it. Satan has put you here to do this.
They’re basically accusing Jesus of performing a false flag operation. So if you’re not familiar with a false flag is, this is ages old military tactic where you have military group one, military group two, and military group one, which is a country or a state or who knows what they are. They really want something that this other group has. And so they need a pretext for war. And so what they do is they’ll bomb their own, you know, whatever, citizens or strike their own, I don’t know, places, whatever it is. They’ll do something. They’ll attack themselves and say, you know what? So close, you guys. Oh, wait for it. We should be on the accusation. Okay, beautiful. I love you guys. My team, you guys, are awesome.
So anyway. Oh, we’re on Windows. Who knows what’s going to happen? I love Australia. So, I’ve totally lost. Oh yes, false flags. This is us disrupting ourselves in order to plant future evidence. It’s not. But that’s the idea. So group one will attack themselves and say, group 2 did it. Now we need to go in there and get their oil or whatever it is that they’re after.
But the fact is that they are so dogmatic in their beliefs, they refuse to accept that someone else or something else could be happening, then their specific religious beliefs that they’ve become blind to the truth, right? They’re like Ralph, the delivery man. It’s a persistent, continuous refusal to acknowledge the truth. Is this my slide? Am I able to advance? I’m going to advance a slide now and we’ll see what happens.
Hey, Jeff, there you are. I was thinking, because swing by this great barbershop, I know. You’re looking a little stubbly, and nobody handles a razor like an Italian. No, I don’t want to go. Not now, not ever. No. No prob. We’ll work around your schedule. Right, in the same way that Pierce refuses to hear what is actually being said.
These scribes, these Jewish scribes refuse to see that what Jesus was doing was real. To what end is Satan taking control of Jesus, and then using him to cast out demons? What is he trying to accomplish by doing it? It doesn’t even make any sense. Because the fact of the matter is, like I talked about a couple of weeks ago, evidence is only evidence if you want it to be. Right? Like I said, everything else is just signposts on the road to nowhere. Evidence is only evidence you want to be. We’ll put that in our other pocket.
The Parables
Now, Jesus responds with 2 parables to this story. Picking it up in verse 23. So he called them and spoke to them in parables. How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom will not be able to stand. If a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. And if Satan rises against himself and is divided, he is not able to stand and his end has come.
So how many of you guys have heard, a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. Maybe some of you today learn that’s in the Bible. I know that I learned that it was about Satan. When I was reading through Mark a few months ago and getting ready for this, I was like, oh yeah, this is about Satan. I shouldn’t admit that as a pastor. I knew that all along. I have the Bible memorized. But yeah, this is about Satan.
Jesus is saying that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand, right? If you were planting a false flag so you could attack this guy to get an end that’s one thing. But if you’re just attacking yourself for the sake of doing it. That’s just destruction.
But this is life level stuff, folks. Right? A kingdom divided against itself, a nation, a country divided against itself cannot stand. This, what this is talking about, is when the things that divide us become the things that define us, the things that divide us become the things that define us. That’s when it becomes irreconcilable. That’s what causes empires to fall. If you look throughout history. You see it over and over and over again. Talk to a history nerd, they will tell you about it, okay?
A house divided against itself cannot stand. Talk to someone who is in a separation or who has been divorced. When the things that divide you become the things that define you, that’s when it becomes irreconcilable. And so we need to work to make sure that the things that divide us get addressed so that they cannot define us.
I was just recently invited by a friend of mine to give witness he was, I don’t want to get too far into the weeds on it, but he was called before the Elders Council because they basically were having a festivist celebration in his honor and there was the great airing of grievances against him. And so myself and another pastor went with him to this meeting, and we came to the conclusion that what had actually happened was that his communication style was very terse and direct, and people found that off putting.
So if he had said something that upset them, what they would do is nothing. In the name of peace and compassion and not wanting to rock the boat, but instead, what happens? If you let that thing go undealt with, it just builds up and it festers and it grows. And it comes, it goes from dividing to defining. And then suddenly they just explode one day with, you are in sin. Well, no. And you can’t hold him accountable for every time he did the same thing wrong if you never offered correction.
And the last thing Jesus says is that if Satan is divided against himself. If we are divided against himself, what does the Bible warn us? No one can serve 2 masters. We cannot serve both God and The Bible has a specific example, but pick one. Money, relationships, career, whatever it is, the world, you cannot serve both things at once. And if those things fall too far apart, you’ll be divided, and you’ll have to fall one way or the other.
So don’t let division define you. Are you sabotaging yourself? Are you sabotaging your walk with God? I’m not going to camp on this because that’s not the point today, but we’re going to move on. I just want leave that thought with you. Don’t let yourself be divided. Don’t let your relationships be divided. Address those things that come up as they come up. Amen? Amen.
All right, here’s another video that’s going to play at the same time live and on the stream. I am attacking myself with a throat punch. Here it comes, block, grasp, wrist, as such. Second throat punch. Absorb the blow. Groin punch. Hip block, elbow to the gut. Uh oh, up to the nose. No, you’re not. Ah! Oh! Oh, my God. He is making you look like such a fool. He really is. But not for long. Ow, God. Instep. Oh, not again. Ha, ha, ha! You two are so evenly matched. I don’t know how one of you’s gonna get the upper hand. The important thing to remember, Jim, we always have what is called the element of surprise. Don’t do that. Don’t do that. All right, moving on.
Verse 27 Exposition
Verse 27. But no one is able to enter a strong man’s house and steal his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can thoroughly plunder the house. When I read this at first, I was like, wait a minute, who’s the strong man? What’s happening here? And if you were confused, don’t worry, that’s totally normal. And if you weren’t confused, you’re not smarter than me. Maybe you are. But the strong man is Satan, right? Because this comes on the heels of the scribes saying, he is a demon casting out demons. remember the false flag attack. That’s the last refuge of the hopeless, the false flag.
So, Jesus here is saying that he needs to bind up Satan, right? In order to plunder his house and steal his property. So the strong man is Satan, the house is the person that he has possessed, and the property is also the person that he has possessed. And I sort of think about it this way from the Sonic the Hedgehog movie.
Hey. Hey. So, my truck still runs, but it’s pretty much totaled. You think your sister would mind if we borrowed her car? You have got to be kidding me. She’ll be fine. Yeah, let’s do that. Hmm? This is my house! Come out! That’s sort of funny when you put it that way, because, I don’t know, really serious clips, I find, put a downer on the morning, but if you think about what Jesus is talking about, it’s a fight. Like, it is serious business.
He’s talking about a spiritual home invasion. Right? He’s going to go into this house that Satan has claimed. He is going to tie him up. And then thoroughly plunder the house. He is taking everything. How many things? Everything. Thoroughly plunder the house.
Jesus is not mincing his words here. He’s talking about a zealous fight for everything. He’s not letting something go by the size. like, well, we’ll get most of it back. Don’t worry. We’ll take care of at least 25%. We’ll aim for 60. He wants everything. We sing a song, which I think has theological problems, but it’s fun, right? I went to the enemy’s camp, and I took back what he stole from me.
Well, the fact is Jesus took back what he stole from you, but you could go to the enemy’s camp and take back what he stole from someone else. I think that’s what we’re called to do. to preach into someone’s life. And like my friend, who I actually don’t think fell into sin, but maybe into communication error, but if you see someone who is flirting with sin, who is messing with sin, in the name of peace, do you ignore that? Or in the name of love, do you go to them and say, I see you going down a path that will lead to no good? Please, please stop.
Not in a judgment way, but in a way that says, I care about you, and yes, I am willing to follow through on this. This isn’t a threat because I want to lord my holiness over you. It’s because I care about you and I want to see you be the best that you can be. That’s what Jesus is talking about here. Going in, tying up the strong man. Binding him up and thoroughly plundering the house. friends, that’s what we should be doing. As Christians, that’s our call. We should fight for souls with the same zeal that Jesus is talking about here. Okay? Love is greater than peace and peace, by the way, is not just the absence of conflict, right? Peace is deep and abiding and comes from Jesus.
Anyway, let’s carry on because I could probably camp on that for too long. Pick it up in verse 28.
The Unforgivable Sin
I tell you the truth, people will be forgiven for all sins, even all the blasphemies they utter. But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. He is guilty of an eternal sin because they said he has an unclean spirit.
Now, interestingly, I like this. I tell you the truth, or verily, I say unto thee, that word is actually amen. It’s a Hebrew word that has been reused across multiple languages. Someone said it’s the most used word in the history of the world because it exists in every language. Amen. We serve a god of truth. Am I right?
Now blasphemy is slander, essentially. And Jesus says, people will be forgiven of all manner of blasphemy, which is slandered specifically against God. Except for against the Holy Spirit. Now what makes the Holy Spirit so special? Because they’re attributing to God or to Satan, excuse me, what is God’s work, they’re blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
They can see, they acknowledge that what’s happening, these scribes, that what’s happening is real, they just think that it’s a setup by Satan because they desperately want to. I don’t really understand. But blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is a special thing because it represents a persistent, continuous refusal to acknowledge the truth.
A persistent, continuous refusal to acknowledge the truth. I like that song that I play during the intro video that you didn’t see, harden my heart. I am going to harden my heart. I’m going to turn and leave you here. Of course, she’s talking about a relationship, but I think that it’s not difficult to get that way with God if you really want to.
Anyway, I have an illustration of this also. It’s been a few weeks since the fiasco on the Statue of Liberty and Spider-Man’s cultists continue to contend that the vile vigilante is a hero. Well, if he were a hero, he’d unmask himself and tell us who he really is, because only a coward conceals his identity. Only a coward hides his true intentions. Rest assured, ladies and gentlemen, this reporter will uncover those intentions, come hell or high water.
So have you ever watched the Spider Man movies? This same guy played the same character all the way back to 2002. Or play the Spider-Man games or even watch the old cartoon show from the 1960s? This guy, this character, J. Jonah Jameson, under no circumstance, will he relent that Spider-Man might possibly be a good guy? He has it set in his mind. That Spider-Man is bad, and nothing can change it.
In fact, in the 2nd movie of the Sam Raimi trilogy from 2003, four, five, I don’t remember, with Dr. Octopus, he has this moment, this enlightenment moment, Jameson does, where he’s like, you know what, maybe there’s a possibility that Spider-Man maybe isn’t so bad. And then Spider-Man comes into his office and takes his costume that Jameson had captured. Well, Jameson wasn’t looking. He realized he’s like, that menace, that guy, he’s evil. He’s no good. He needs to be locked up and instantly he reverts back. Because he just can’t allow himself to believe the truth.
Do we do this? That’s an open question. I don’t have an answer for you. Now, you might start to wonder, okay, so it becomes this persistent, continuous refusal to acknowledge the truth. Do I need to be worried? Is this something I need to worry about? Have I committed the unforgivable sin? I mean, Conrad, you specifically told me that proximity to Jesus does not mean good standing with him. And Paul, in fact, says as much in Romans one and even more harshly.
Let’s read through Romans one, starting in verse 21. For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks. But they became futile in their thoughts, and their senseless hearts were darkened. Up to verse 24. Therefore, God gave them over to their desires, the desires of their hearts to impurity, excuse me, to dishonor their bodies among themselves. They exchange the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
Jumping ahead to verse 28. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a depraved mind to do what should not be done. They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, and malice. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, hostility. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, senseless, covenant breakers, heartless and ruthless.
Although they fully know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but also approve of those who practice them. Do you see? This isn’t something that you’re going to do accidentally. Now this could be something that you slip into over time. If you let the things that divide you define you. But it represents a persistent, continuous refusal to acknowledge the truth.
We see another example of this, and some of you, it might have jumped to mind immediately when you heard the opening song. A guy named Pharaoh. Remember we read continuously in the story of Pharaoh oppressing the Israelites and Moses trying to get them out of there. God hardened his heart. God hardened his heart. God hardened his heart.
Now, my personal opinion is that God did not go in, and actively hardened the heart of Pharaoh. Some people believe that, I don’t. I think that God grants us free will, but I think that God sees how we will respond and arranges his world accordingly. And in the same way we read in Romans that God turns them over to their sinful desires, I believe that is exactly what God did with Pharaoh. said, okay, if you want to be that way, I will remove my common grace from you, and you can become the absolute hater of me that you so desire to be.
If that’s what you want, okay. I heard Mike describe it when I was a kid as God is a gentleman. I think that’s true. God’s not going to force himself on you. And if you really want to get away, he’s going to say, okay. Because evidence, right, pull that out of our pocket is only evidence if we want it to be.
Assurance and Call to Action
So if you’re worried about this, if you’re like, oh, no, did I commit this sin? Do I need to repent of unforgivable sin? Am I tombed to hell? If you’re concerned about it, that’s probably not you. So if you’re worried, you’re probably in good standing.
But if you know friends. If you have people in your life that you care about, don’t forget Graham’s story last week. He was choking up up here, just thinking about, I missed my chance. Don’t miss your chance. If you have an opportunity to speak into someone’s life to bind up the strong man and thoroughly plunder his house, do it.
Remember, I’ve said, and I’ve been consistent on this forever. I don’t think that you can lose your salvation like you might forget your hat on a bus, right? The way I always describe your salvation is like your underpants, right? You can lose them. But it doesn’t just happen accidentally. This is something that needs to have some sort of intentional input. Okay, so if you’re worried, you’re probably in good standing.
If you know someone, please, please bind up the strong man and plunder his house. Amen.
Closing Prayer
All right, I’m going to pray and we’ll bring the worship team back up. We might even have some lyrics for you for the back half of this. Let’s pray.
Father God, thank you so much that you are in control. You are the ultimate authority. God, and even though Satan has some modicum of dominion here on this earth. At the end of the day, you are in charge of all of this. I pray that you would help us to continue to submit our lives to you, God, to lay them down before you, to make sure that when Satan comes in and tries to divide our house or our lives, to get us away from you, that that would not become something that defines us, but that we would fight against it, and that we would speak into the lives and receive rebuke of people speaking into ours.
I pray that we would look for opportunities to bind up the strong man, Satan, and plunder his house. God, present us with those opportunities, plant that desire in our hearts and in our minds, and cause us to act on it. Thank you, Jesus, for all that you have done to make this possible. I pray that you would embolden us to carry out your work in the days and weeks and months and indeed years to come. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.